Flails
Flails are a loose-hanging and versatile type of rotating weapon found in Robot Wars. They first appeared in Series 2, with Caliban being the first of six robots from that series to be equipped with them. The most successful and notable robots with flails are Mace, which reached the Semi-Finals of Series 2 and 3 with this weapon, and Nuts 2, which used flails in tandem with its Meltybrain technology to finish joint-third overall in Series 10. Definition *A flail is a rotating weapon with spikes, blades or other objects that dangle loosely from the weapon mechanism, usually by a chain. The mechanism can take any form, from simple axles to flywheels/discs and even revolving rings attached to the robot's chassis. When the weapon rotates at full speed, the objects at the end "flail" around, hence the name, with the intention of hitting opponents and causing cuts, scratches or dents to their armour or locomotion. Flails were sometimes used in conjunction with other spinning weapons, such as full-body spinners, their flexible designs helping to prevent recoils to the robot's main body and armour. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages *The non-rigid nature of flails allows them to often keep spinning even upon contact with other robots, unlike weapons such as bar spinners and cutting discs. Mace, for example, was able to continue damaging Leighviathan and Chaos even after repeatedly hitting them with its rear flail. *Flails can be attached to large discs, full-body spinners or - less commonly - sit-and-spin robots, increasing their damage output even further. This was best demonstrated by Nuts 2 in Series 10, whose flails were able to cause significant damage to Concussion, Androne 4000 and Carbide during its run. *They can be incorporated into invertible designs, as demonstrated by Nuts. *The length of flails give the weapon a wide damage radius, which can help prevent opponents from attacking close to it. This was the logic behind Nuts' tactic against Carbide ahead of their Series 8 Head-to-Head battle, and which later contributed to Nuts 2's successes in Series 10. *Flails can be designed to double up as entanglement devices, which can be absorbed by spinners. Disadvantages *Flails are less durable than solid spinners, consisting of much thinner and less rigid metal, which can occasionally be ripped from a robot entirely. *The usage of flails powered individually by a motor became outdated as Robot Wars progressed due to a history of lower damage output, and generally have to work in unison with another spinning weapon or body in order to be effective. *Flails attached to powerful spinning mechanisms originally posed safety concerns with Robot Wars producers. Mauler was infamously disqualified from The First World Championship after the producers deemed that its weapon was too powerful for the arena to contain safely, while modern flail spinners often have to be tested in the full-size Robot Wars Arena instead of the test arena. List of Robots with Flails Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. Category:Weapon Types Category:Robots with Flails